Labor Miles Behind After Queensland Votes…
As with every state election there are no implications for the next federal election. I know this because everyone who doesn’t like a particular result will tell you this and those who like the result are too busy celebrating to tell you anything.
However, I can’t help but wonder about the rhetoric around the idea that federal Labor is in trouble in Queensland and this could have terrible consequences for the upcoming election. I mean if the swing in last night’s state election were repeated then it would mean that Labor would lose somewhere between zero and one seats to the LNP and they’d possibly pick up a seat or two off the Greens, so all up, it would make no difference.
Of course, I am only talking about Queensland because the various commentary has been treating it as a special case and suggesting that Labor really needs to do something to win over our northern cousins. Given that Labor has only one seat that the LNP could reasonably target federally, it seems like their efforts would be better spent winning over NSW by passing laws that allow State of Origin matches to be decided by popular vote.
If the swing were repeated nationally on a uniform basis, then Labor would be in trouble. In saying that, I’m not suggesting that it would be repeated because, well, swings are never uniform and there are always things that mean that various electorates may defy expectations. This can be caused by such things as a popular local member or the fact that one party has certain plans for it that the electorate don’t actually like. I’m not going to suggest that some electorates may not like having a nuclear plant built there without consultation because I may be accused of being an ABC journalist who has an agenda and there was plenty of consultation about where those nuclear plants were going… it just wasn’t with any of the local people until after the decision had been announced. Besides, there was no need for consultation because, as Mr Dutton said, how does anyone know that they’d be against it?
The other interesting thing from last night’s result was the performance of the Greens. As yet nobody has come out and said that there are no federal implications for the next federal election and the fact that Max Chandler-Mather lives in the seat they lost won’t mean that he’s under threat but I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before someone from the Greens says that it was Labor’s refusal to negotiate with them that led to the change of government…
And speaking of no seats, Pauline Hanson’s One Notion Party seems to have recaptured its past irrelevance. Yes, one has to respect Pauline’s principles. While it was the Liberals that started the process which saw her spend time in jail, it’s Labor that she’s said she’d never support. She’s a forgiving soul. Anyway, again, no federal implications and I expect Pauline to be returned to the Senate where she can point out how much taxpayer money is being wasted because it doesn’t go to her.
So, what happens next? Which will be the first promise broken or will Crisafulli surprise everyone by keeping his promises? On what day will the new government say that the Budget’s a mess and we can’t keep those 50 cent fares. As for changes to abortion laws, we said that we had no plans to change them and we still don’t but the Katter Party wants a vote and it’s the sort of thing that needs a conscience vote and we still have no plans but, as Robbie Burns, wrote “the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley.”
And even though there are no federal implications, what will happen on Insiders when people start to speculate about the implications?
Whatever the future holds for the Albanese government, I’d suggest that this is a terrific result for them. At last they have a mainland state government that they can blame for what’s going wrong in that particular state without worrying about the terrible look of a party fighting amongst itself.
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Anon. E. Mouse -
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Katie -
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Anon. E. Mouse
Return to home pageAt least we know that the lnp in qld will be for doing away with our attachment to the British system of government, the Westminister system. Given that they want to control the judiciary, ending the separation of powers must surely mean ousting the monarchy as head of state.
Scary days ahead for Qld as Crisafulli has embraced racist rhetoric and policies. Amanda Stoker as part of this government makes it even scarier.
“So, what happens next? Which will be the first promise broken or will Crisafulli surprise everyone by keeping his promises?”
He’s already broken some promises before even moving into premiers office:
“I’ll step down after 4 years if we can’t can get the crime rate down.”
The 100 day promise depends on “population numbers.”
Weasel words at their finest.
I’ll give the 50 cent fares promise about 1 year, maybe less.
Boo-hoo, (gets out a Tony Abbott crying onion) One Notion didn’t get a single seat.
Crisafulli has said that there will be no nuclear power stations in Queensland – Dutton has said that he can constitutionally overrule Queensland (which he can).
Crisafulli has said that he will legislate on youth crime by the end of the year – what does that mean ? Do we start going after toddlers ?
The Greens are looking like Monty Python’s Black Night – they started with two seats, aimed at six and they might get one : just a flesh wound.
How is it possible for One Notion to field 93 candidates and not even win one seat (including their star candidate, James Ashby) ?
My guess is Amanda Stoker, now newly elected into Queensland, will introduce an anti-abortion law and demand a conscience vote. Oddly Amanda Stoker was not the source of the Mad as Hell ultra-right character Draymella Burt, although she bore an uncanny likeness to her. Then the cuts will start.
Surely nobody expects the LNP to keep their promises.
I think Crisafulli had his fingers crossed when he said no nuclear.
There’s already talk about reopening the old Mary Kathleen mine and the Ben Lomond that impacts on Townsville’s water supply.
“I said we’d keep 50 Cent fares and if the rapper 50 Cent comes here then he can have can pay that, but for those of you who aren’t him, fares will be going up to…”
There was also talk of more use of coal to reduce the cost of energy. The idea of increased charges against children in order to bring down the crime rate ignores the failure of that policy in other places and the hurt it causes.
We wonder,too, about why the right-wing party has been so little in power in Queensland, and the weakness of those in power when they did.
As well, they seem to blame Albanese for the cost of living, as if they know nothing about how much Labor worked so hard to aid the nation against total poverty.
What can we expect from Crisafulli, Dutton, etc?
Not much, I would say.
TM asks “[how] is it possible for One Notion to field 93 candidates and not even win one seat… including their star candidate, James Ashby?”
Stirring the tea leaves and poking the ashes of the fire pit with a forked stick, one suggests that the incredible has occurred; that the median IQ of the Queensland population has risen one or two points. Just enough to finally stop seeing the world through the lens of Pawleen’s unique viewpoint, but not enough to prevent being smoke & mirrored by Crisafulli’s hocus-pocus.
And as for Monty Python’s Black Night [sic]; we live in hope that the day may come when the Greens actually get their act together and become a real force for good in politics.
canguru,
Please don’t give us that crap about the Greens getting their act together.
With 9.5% of the Queensland voters indicating that they wish to be represented by a Greens candidate it should be expected in a truly democratic nation that the Greens would get at least 9 seats, entitling them to 9 votes in the Queensland Parliament. That would certainly make a big difference as to which party forms government.
But no, this is Australia where fair and equal democratic representation is seen as a threat to regional privilege, and so democracy is suppressed by the idiocy of compulsory preferential voting. If indicating a preference was not compulsory but voluntary then that at least would allow voters to keep their ballots formal without being obliged to endorse candidates of parties that they despise. Better to have no representation at all than be represented by a candidate you have been forced to preference who is utterly opposed to your interests. This is not democracy. This is disenfranchisement.
No wonder Queensland, ie the “Deep North”, is widely considered to be the most regressive, racist and ultra-conservative State in Australia! Their blind, irrational and historical steadfast support for the worst, most devious, lying, corrupt, misogynistic parasites in the extreme right-wing goes BEYOND what can be considered intelligent, foresightful or even rational! No matter the ever-increasing level of pathological lies committed by just about every member of the LNP, the ongoing incidences of misogynistic predation and condescending contempt for women (generally) by the male-dominated cabinet of the LNP at both State and Federal levels, the clear evidence of blatant homophobia expressed throughout the right-wing, the escalating level of divisiveness, racism and Islamophobia that has almost become LNP “policy”, the callous disregard for the poorest, most vulnerable people in our nation, the insufferable level of nauseating barely-concealed bible-thumping hypocrisy and the non-stop vile attacks against anyone and everyone who is NOT male, white, right-wing or a signed-up member of the wealthy Top 1% and the blind, reckless support for the worst, most devious, power-obsessed right-wing sociopaths in the LNP by the majority of Murdoch-manipulated Queenslanders is the reason WHY that State is considered to be the “Alabama of Australia”. It is NO COINCIDENCE that some of our worst, most racist and power-obsessed political tyrants come from there: Joe Bjelke Petersen, Pauline Hanson, Russ Hinz, the callously inhumane political psychopath Dutton – and the list goes on and on. If there was EVER a State that would give rise to a Trump-like, totally corrupt and dangerously undemocratic fascist, Queensland is the likely place of origin for such a despot! Most New South Welshmen, Victorians and South Australians just thank God every day we don’t live there!
Katie, Don’t ignore the solid rump of climate change denial that runs through the LNP. Crisafulli has already announced he will scrap the Miles government’s $12 billion Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro Project in North Queensland. This will set back the move to renewables quite considerably and means that many areas of North Queensland will be consigned to coal as their main source of power for a generation.
It is also clear that the loss of seats by Labor to the LNP in the MacKay and Townsville region are all about coal jobs and an antipathy to renewable sources of energy at the expense of jobs in the coalmining industry.
Expect an announcement soon reducing coal royalties as a reward to the Resources Council for their relentless negative advertising against Labor.
‘Sorry about that, Australia !
My honest assessment of the Greens in federal parliament and the senate, they abandoned the wearing of ties in both places. That is to be commended by all those who like to buck the normal for recognition!
Katie, old Joh Bjelke Peterson was born in New Zealand. For the record we can at least not claim Queensland as the place the corrupt old Joh took his first breath. Small mercy I suppose.